Homophobic? Us?

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A third of Australians think homosexuality is immoral. Is this
cause for alarm or a sign of increasing tolerance, asks Julie
Szego.

"Australia's largest gay and lesbian expo", as it's touted, will
be held in Carlton in September. Organisers hope the event will
raise funds for gay community causes, but there will also be real
estate agents, art galleries, travel agencies and St Kilda's niche
Out Video store pitching for the pink dollar.

The whole thing is middle-class mainstream, symptomatic of a
minority comfortable with its status. That is perhaps unsurprising
given that inner-city Melbourne is allegedly the most gay-tolerant
area in the country.

This is one finding of an Australia Institute survey on
homophobia released this week, but not the one that aroused the
most discussion. What has experts scratching their heads is the
revelation that, despite gay sitcoms and lesbian chic, more than a
third of Australians view homosexuality as immoral.

Whether the finding is cause for alarm or shows rising tolerance
depends on who you talk to. Bill Muehlenberg of the conservative
Australian Family Association insists similar surveys show a higher
percentage disapproving of homosexuality. Gay groups and many
academics say homophobia is rising in Australia, a result of a
growing conservative culture and a lack of political
leadership.

Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby co-convener David Scamell says the
Howard Government's "family values" push has caused an anti-gay
backlash. "There used to be a much more receptive attitude in the
mid 1990s towards gay and lesbian rights and gay and lesbian
people. We know from history that when governments are proactive on
a particular social platform . . . the public seems to follow that
position."

There is little historical evidence one way or the other, but we
are more tolerant than Americans. A 2001 Roy Morgan International
survey found that, while slightly more than a third of Australians
believed homosexuality was immoral, 48 per of Americans thought
so.

At least until a few years ago, most Australians opposed
homosexuals having the same legal rights as heterosexuals - a 1999
survey found that just 24 per cent supported gays being allowed to
adopt. But that view may be changing - last week a Victorian Law
Reform Commission report, yet to be endorsed by the Government,
backed changing the law to allow homosexual adoption. The Australia
Institute study, which drew on interviews with almost 25,000 people
by Roy Morgan Research, found attitudes varied widely depending on
age, education and where people lived. Those likely to disapprove
of gays are the less educated, the more religious and men,
particularly those older than 65. Other findings are
counter-intuitive: only 34 per cent of Catholics endorse the
anti-gay view, suggesting they had become adept "at interweaving
their own moral instincts with the various proscriptions of the
church".

Young men aged between 14 and 17 are more likely to be
disapproving: 43 per cent agree homosexuality is immoral. Madelaine
Imber, a high school teacher in Melbourne's west, says year 7
students tend to use "gay" or "poofter" as generic insults. But by
the time students turn 16 or 17, the taunt is more deliberate and
menacing. "I've had kids say to me, 'I go gay bashing,' and I'll
say to them, 'It's not up to you to make those judgements,' and
they'll say, 'But it's against God, it's disgusting,' you name it .
. . and they usually aren't religious themselves."

The study found most lose their homophobia once they leave
school. But health sociologist David Plummer, author of One of
the Boys: Masculinity, Homophobia and Modern Manhood, says
schoolyard conditioning can lead to domestic violence and other
violent crime later on. "You can be pretty sure that the most
homophobic males are also misogynist. Most of the time, 'poofter'
and other terms are brought up when boys don't conform with
hyper-masculinity. The effect of such intense conditioning might
get more tame, more subtle as men get older, but it's not entirely
gone."

Plummer thinks the Australia Institute study reflects sadly on
Australia's education system, suggesting schools need to do more to
protect boys from homophobic abuse. He says even seemingly
constructive practices such as compulsory team sports can put
vulnerable boys at greater risk.

At first glance, it seems curious that such a large minority in
a secular, postmodern society labels a sexual practice "immoral".
While the study's authors say this view constitutes homophobia - an
"unreasoning fear or hatred" of gays or anti-homosexual beliefs or
prejudices - they concede that those holding the belief don't
necessarily display hostility towards gays. "A conservative
Christian might believe it to be immoral, but still practises
tolerance and compassion in everyday life," says co-author Michael
Flood.

Does the survey reflect the growing influence of conservative
Christians? Gay activist Rodney Croome blames the rise of
evangelical churches for making Tasmania's north-west apparently
one of the country's most "homophobic" areas. What the study
reveals is "not intractable, low-lying, residual prejudice", Croome
wrote in the Tasmanian Times this week, "but something much
newer and more dangerous."

In Melbourne, the family-belt suburbs of the east and south
appear the most unsympathetic to homosexuality. David McGrouther,
vice-principal of the evangelical Bible College of Victoria, isn't
shocked that a third of Australians find homosexuality wrong. "I do
at least 70 public speaking events a year and talk with thousands
of people and no, I'm not surprised. That's not saying anything
about my own opinion - you just know that that's how it is.

"The kind of material that's on TV, like Big Brother,
doesn't reflect mainstream Australia, it's a very minority view . .
. And there are many, many ethnic groups around the country who are
just appalled at the issue of homosexuality."

The study's authors appear optimistic about attitudes softening
in the future, hypothesising, in polite language, that the
intolerant third is likely to shrink as the last members of an
older, more traditional generation die out. Those wanting
perspective on the rate of social change might consider the tone of
this article from Time magazine in 1966: "Even in purely
nonreligious terms, homosexuality represents a misuse of the sexual
faculty . . .

"It is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a
pitiable flight from life. As such it deserves fairness,
compassion, understanding, and, when possible, treatment. But it
deserves no encouragement, no glamorisation, no rationalisation, no
fake status as a minority martyrdom." The more some things stay the
same, the more they also change.